christopher_hallam

Judge Roger Vinson ruling overturning the Affordable Care Act strikes me as far more nakedly partisan than Judge Henry Hudson‘s ruling. As Brian Beutler notes, he overturned the act in part based on Congress’ failure to include a severability clause, a route Chief Justice John Roberts has declined to take in the past. Unlike Hudson, […]

Violent incidents along the border in which undocumented immigrants are alleged to have been involved in often become rallying cries for immigration restrictionists, despite the fact that immigrants are less likely than natives to commit crimes. For some reason though, this story hasn’t gotten much traction despite the shootings in Tucson weeks ago: Shawna Forde, […]

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen‘s piece on legendary former NAACP head Ben Hooks‘ FBI file includes some angry letters and news clippings sent to Hooks before an appearance in West Virginia. One of the articles was about a Charles Town West Virginia Mayor, Donald Master, a trained veterinarian who suggested “spaying welfare mothers” instead […]

Shani Hilton is guest-blogging for Ta-Nehisi Coates this week, and she has an interesting post up about reboots, citing James Bond, Batman, and a dreaded Buffy reboot that will excise many of the elements beloved by fans of Joss Whedon‘s original TV series. One thing I’ll say though, is that I think Hilton is blurring […]

Dave Gilson profiles “gamer guru” Jane McGonigal: McGonigal estimates that humans have spent nearly 6 million cumulative years playing World of Warcraft—about the same amount of time that’s elapsed since our ancestors first walked on two legs. Thus, she claims, gamers are not simply enjoying themselves, they’re literally evolving in real time. Never mind that […]

If conservatives were really serious about the slavery/abortion analogies, particularly about the notion that abortion is equivalent to murder and therefore violence is theoretically justified in response, you’d think that there would be a lot less “Confederate History Month” going on and a lot more celebration of Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey. Conservatives have gone […]

Tim Lee writes about how libertarians have done pretty well despite ostensibly not being part of the in crowd in either major party: I think DeBoer is basically right. We obviously don’t live in a perfectly libertarian world, but libertarians have had a pretty impressive winning streak in recent decades, especially on economic policy. Income […]

Steven A. Cook has a fascinating piece on why the Tunisian military sided with the people rather than the secular, autocratic government once headed by former President Zine Abidine Ben Ali: Although the armed forces intervention defied expectations of Middle Eastern militaries, the fact that officers sided with the Tunisian people actually makes perfect sense. […]

I know Markos Moulitsas is shrill and all, but this transcript from a show Glenn Beck did last June is pretty unambiguous: I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don’t. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and […]

Gene Demby responds to a column suggesting the “free market” could have ended Jim Crow: Indeed, the Montgomery bus boycott succeeded because the city’s bus system was the rare service used by whites that also required black folks’ money to effectively function. Black folks couldn’t have actively boycotted their way into better housing or schools […]